Chapter 66: Beneath the River
'Boom!'
Just as Yu Guo and Ji Li stood frozen in shock, the two windows of Room 1307 shattered instantly.
Shards of glass, sharp as knives, flew in every direction. This destruction was far more violent than the earlier mirror breaking and far more threatening.
A wide pane struck Ji Li in the back, sending him stumbling forward.
Yu Guo frantically swung his backpack, trying to shield himself from the flying shards.
Snapping out of the daze, Ji Li lunged forward, grabbing Yu Guo's arm and racing toward the main exit.
When his body slammed into the door, he expected resistance—but surprisingly, the doorway gave way easily. Aside from the shattered glass, the ghost made no move to harm them.
The two sprinted down the thirteenth-floor corridor, desperate to escape this ominous place.
Ji Li occasionally glanced backward. Nothing pursued them, no supernatural force threatened them. This confirmed his suspicion: the earlier chaos had been nothing more than the ghost forcing them to leave.
Had it intended to kill, they would have already been dead multiple times over.
Ji Li realized the small message on the mirror had been written by the ghost itself.
Yu Guo, running alongside, glanced at Ji Li and shouted, breathless: "We arrived a season too early… does that mean—"
Ji Li wiped the cuts on his face and replied quietly:
"It seems we guessed right. This ghost will become our assigned target in the future. The task will likely fall on the winter solstice."
Yu Guo had already begun to suspect this. The abrupt appearance of the words on the mirror and the explosive shattering of the glass had unsettled him.
Yet instead of fear, a spark of excitement lit his face. At that moment, he even felt a strange gratitude toward the hellish Tianhai Hotel that had drawn him in.
"At least I now have the right to meet A-Lian!"
Behind this 'right' lay blood-soaked death and silent despair, but Yu Guo was determined to endure. Survive until winter, and he could finally fulfill his long-cherished wish. Hope, however faint, had returned.
Ji Li's hair blew in the midnight corridor as he silently watched Yu Guo's vibrant face, letting out a faint sigh.
...
Outside the office building, Ji Li and Yu Guo had escaped with minimal danger and stood at the base of the stairs, gazing at the night in silence.
The events that had just occurred were strange, yet they matched Ji Li's suspicions about the ghost.
A creature this powerful, entrenched for years, could not have gone unnoticed by the Tianhai Hotel.
It seemed the hotel already had plans regarding this ghost, yet the ghost's reaction surprised Ji Li.
It had informed them that they arrived a season early. On the surface, it seemed trivial. But thinking more deeply, it hinted at a massive secret: the hotel had prior dealings with this ghost.
Ji Li couldn't fully comprehend it. Their usual task as hotel staff was to capture ghosts from supernatural locations and forcibly 'house' them in the hotel. That had always been the standard approach.
But ever since the last mission, Ji Li sensed something was off. The blood-handed ghost had entered the hotel yet was left untouched, and instead, the hotel used the situation to set up a task.
It seemed the hotel handled ghosts in two ways:
First, like the peeping or frame ghosts Ji Li had encountered—these were beyond the hotel's direct control, and staff went out to capture and guide them voluntarily. This was the conventional method.
Second, like the blood-handed ghost or the one in this university—these clearly had prior contact with the hotel. The hotel knew about them and issued tasks accordingly.
These two approaches left Ji Li puzzled. The first is for capturing ghosts, but what is the purpose of the second?
The Tianhai Hotel remained an unsolvable mystery. The more Ji Li tried to understand, the deeper the confusion became.
Standing in the wind, his expression dark, he watched the dense trees and felt trapped in an inescapable forest maze. The more he struggled, the deeper he sank.
"Back to the hotel?"
Yu Guo, having now clarified the task's timing and feeling a weight lifted, brightened. He patted Ji Li on the shoulder, signaling it was time to leave.
For Yu Guo, his life's purpose now rested on this certainty. It was far better than wandering aimlessly before. All he needed now was to survive until winter.
Ji Li pulled himself from his tangled thoughts, exhaled a cloud of breath, and drew a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. His gaze swept toward the school's main gate.
"The ghost at the front gate… not sure if it's still there. Better to climb the wall from the back, just in case."
Yu Guo nodded and tossed his bag over the wall, following Ji Li's lead.
...
In the taxi, Ji Li still sat in the back seat, smoking. The ash was blown in all directions by the open window, making the driver's face turn ashen.
The driver clenched his teeth, watching Ji Li's profile through the rearview mirror, grinding his jaw.
If Ji Li hadn't paid an exorbitant car wash fee, he would have long since lost his patience and confronted him.
Now, seeing Ji Li smoking with the window open, all he could do was suppress the thought: 'So what if he's rich?'
Yu Guo, on the other hand, had returned to his usual playful self. Unlike the trip there, he sat in the front passenger seat, which allowed him to endlessly bicker with the driver.
Half of the driver's sullen expression was also due to the nonstop chatter of the young man beside him.
Ji Li's behavior wasn't intentional. His thoughts were chaotic, weighed down by something pressing; smoking was the only way to relieve it.
The ghost from Tiannan Drama Academy could be put aside for now—another anomaly required attention.
It was the mysterious ghost that appeared to have followed them all the way from the Republic-era street.
Ji Li frequently leaned out the window, checking the cars behind, and every half-minute swept a glance through the taxi's interior, wary that a terrifying ghost might suddenly appear beside him.
He didn't know why the ghost was tracking them, but for safety's sake, he chose a longer, indirect route.
The journey remained uneventful. That night, there were scares, but no real danger.
After taking an extra twenty minutes, Ji Li and Yu Guo arrived by the moat and got out in front of the hotel.
Yu Guo stretched deeply, pushed open the door, and entered first, muttering a casual "good evening."
Ji Li looked once more at the moat and the stone bridge, confirming nothing unusual, before following inside.
The instant his foot crossed the threshold, Ji Li's left pinky twitched inexplicably.
The reaction made his hairs stand on end. His eyes snapped toward the river in the night.
The darkness turned the water into a seemingly endless black canvas. Mist floated above, suffused with a heavy, deathlike stillness.
At the center, a single ripple appeared, as if a stone had struck the surface, breaking the calm.
It was as if something could no longer remain hidden, lifting a corner of the dark canvas—the true shadows behind were about to be unleashed.
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